2.1: Anthropometric Indicators Measurement Guide - Linkages Project

P ART
1.Introduction
1.
This guide provides information on the Anthropometric Impact
Indicators and the Annual Monitoring Indicators for Maternal and
Child Health/Child Survival (MCH/CS) and income-related Title II
activities, a subset of the P.L. 480 Title II Generic Performance Indicators for
Development Activities. The impact indicators are:
• decreased percent of stunted children (presented for ages 24-60
months and by gender), where stunting is defined as percent of children
falling below -2 standard deviations for height-for-age;
• decreased percent of underweight children (in specified age
groupings such as 12-24 months 36-59 months and by gender) where
underweight is defined as percent of children falling below -2 standard
deviations for weight-for-age.
These indicators are required for the reports of projects with specific
nutrition components and are collected at baseline, mid-term and final-year
evaluations. Stunting, reflected by deficits in height-for-age would not be
expected to change in a short time period. It is recommended, therefore, not
to report stunting figures annually. Underweight (or weight for age), reported
for specific age groupings, would change more quickly as it is influenced by
short-term effects such as a recent outbreak of diarrheal diseases.
Some programs report stunting for children under 24 months of age
rather than the recommended 24-60 months age grouping. Restricting the
age grouping to children under 24 months has the disadvantage of not
capturing the lagged effects of the program and reducing the numbers of
potential participants in a survey. The advantage of using children under 24
months is that the data are more useful to determine the factors related to
stunting for program design or redesign.
The monitoring indicators are:
• increased percent of eligible children in growth
monitoring/promotion (usually presented for children